Let's start A "3D Robotics" league

We're big fans of the FIRST robotics championships in our house and are of course starting to work on our own Lego League sumo wrestling entries. But as challenging as it to create autonomous wheeled robots that can fight others or navigate mazes or obstacle courses, there's one thing that could be made even harder. You could add another dimension.

All the FIRST robotics contest are held on a two-dimensional plane (the ground or a tabletop). But what if you let the battle take to the skies, too? What if we created a competition for semiautonomous model airplanes, helicopters and rockets? Call it the 3D Robotics League.

After all, modern UAVs grew out of the radio-control airplane scene and the technologies that allow them to fly themselves--gyros, video and other sensors, GPS, digital radio and onboard microprocessors--are now shrinking in size and falling in price at a rapid pace. You can buy a model airplane today for less than $60 that has an onboard computer and basic sensors, and standard model helicopters have gyroscopes and autopilot modes. GPS chips are already small enough to fit into cellphones.

We're right on the verge of an era where it will be possible for regular people, not just engineers, to create home-built UAVs and guided rockets. So why not create a formal set of challenges so that innovative teams could advance the state of the art, just as the FIRST league has done for terrestrial robotics? (In fact, the Koreans already have such a competition. The picture above is from that.)

Autonomous aircraft challenges could include navigating a course, dropping a marker near a target, dogfighting with another plane (using ultrasonic tagging), or landing near a designated spot, all pilotless. Some levels of competition would allow for piloted take-offs and landings and switching into autonomous mode for the competition part of the flight, while more advanced levels would be entirely under computer control.

For rockets, the competition would probably be of the surface-to-air missile variety--ranging from popping a balloon to hitting a target towed behind a model airplane. This might be seen as politically incorrect in an era where terrorists with Stingers are a real threat, so I may have to think of something less warlike. But you get the idea.

I was chatting about this with folks (including Larry Page, who is another RC plane enthusiast, of course) at the X-Prize Foundation dinner at the Google headquarters last night. The X-Prize is also a competition in the skies and the star-studded guest list (from Richard Branson to Tipper Gore to Robin Williams) was a testament to how widely that resonates. I don't think 3D Robotics needs an equally grand challenge and prize cup, but I do think that a little formal competition could really revolutionize the hobbyist scene, bridging robotics and radio control and creating a whole new level of challenge.

So now to do a little research and see who's already working in this field in the Bay Area and might want to get this started. Will Wright? Squid Labs? Steve Jurvetson? RoboGames? We'll see what a little emailing generates.

Meanwhile, when one of my kids' guided rocket shoots down a sibling's UAV, I will be a very proud father indeed.

Comments

[Don Marti]

How about "search an area for a certain type of object and photograph all you can find" -- each bot gets to submit a limited number of photos, and the score is the number of photos that have the desired object in them. Start with something easy like a big square of white Tyvek and work your way up.

[Kevin Kelly]

Not just the Koreans. Georgia Tech in Atlanta has had a UAV contest since at least 2001, maybe earlier. http://uav.ae.gatech.edu/

[Ryan Stenson]

There are several advanced unmanned systems competitions hosted yearly by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI): http://www.auvsi.org/competitions/ They are collegiate, although some high schools do enter.
(Disclaimer: I used to compete in two of these competitions- AUV and student UAV)

[Tom Comeau]

Rather than have a rocket shoot things down, have it do "spy shots". The rocket must carry a camera up, re-orient to get the picture, and then deploy a recovery system. (Soft landings required, as they are in the NAR rules.) That makes the GNC problem a little harder, actually, but a lot more fun.

tc>

[Telstar Logistics/Todd Lappin]

Just to add a little more density to the Bay Area autonomous-UAV talent cluster, there's also some research into this area which has been taking place at NASA Ames in Mountain View.

Meanwhile, Steve Jurvetson has also been taking his rocketry to a new level.

[Jack Poller]

I'm in the process of starting a company to develop UAVs (you can follow my story at www.ventureadventure.net).

I'm not only very interested, but will provide any help possible.

[Igor Carron]

There is clearly a good reason for making this sort of application happen: Enabling the cheap mapping, near real time. of large swath of land hit by major disasters. Last september we flew a Canon camera in a high altitude balloon, took photos and had them patched automatically using an off the shelf software and obtained this:

http://sei.tamu.edu/geocam/Panoramas/panorama_22-23-50pct.htm

I can only imagine the throughput we could get from using several low cost UAVs (since the photos do not need to be taken from the same plane).

Igor.

[Bob]

Paparazzi is a free and open-source hardware and software project intended to create an exceptionally powerful and versatile autopilot system....
http://www.recherche.enac.fr/paparazzi/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

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[nehir]

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[gifts]

I had planned on attending the FIRST robotics championships last year, but I had an unforeseen emergency come up with my family. And now I look at the information that will come from that night and I feel even worse about missing it now. I am so looking forward to the next one that I am going to make sure nothing gets in the way of my attending during it. I already have a place I can stay for the week of it so I can cover my bases and be not reachable by anyone on the outside world. I have heard about all the information on the new technologies that was given you and shared. Also, thinking about all the contacts I could have made, it makes me very sad when I think about it. I am so going to be there next year and I can not wait.

[Jason]

I think this is a great idea. I have been a competitor in the International Aerial Robotics Competition (http://avdil.gtri.gatech.edu/AUVS/IARCLaunchPoint.html) for 4 years now and have found it to be a very rewarding experience. The UAVs we have developed are relatively expensive for a hobby or high school competition, but simpler UAVs could be developed for just a few hundred dollars.

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